ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, April 22, 1997 TAG: 9704220058
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
Satanic rock band to play in Richmond
RICHMOND - The City Council on Monday reversed a decision to cancel a concert by the controversial rock band Marilyn Manson.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia had threatened to sue on behalf of fans of the group if the May 10 event at the city-owned Richmond Coliseum was stopped.
``Whether or not we like Marilyn Manson's music or agree with their lyrics, we should all be celebrating this victory for the First Amendment,'' Kent Willis, state ACLU director, said of the decision to allow the performance.
But City Manager Robert C. Bobb said the group won't be welcome and its fans will be closely watched by police.
About 2,000 of 9,000 available tickets already had been sold when the city attempted last week to stop the concert.
Marilyn Manson is known for lewd on-stage acts and songs about mutilation, murder and depravity. Its leader is a self-avowed satanist.
-ASSOCIATED PRESS
State takes in 24 stranded Lorton inmates
RICHMOND - The Virginia Department of Corrections took in 24 Lorton inmates - nine of them murderers - last month after Piedmont Regional Jail refused to keep them, and Lorton could not take them back.
The inmates were sent to the Keen Mountain, Augusta and Nottoway correctional centers. Lorton is a crowded, 7,200-inmate Fairfax County prison operated by the District of Columbia.
``It was a crisis for Lorton, and Director [Ronald J.] Angelone did it as a favor to his colleague in the district,'' Virginia prison spokesman David Botkins said of the transfer. The inmates are to leave in May, he said.
Another 75 Lorton inmates are being held in Portsmouth and Gloucester jails. An additional 25 to 50 had been held at the Virginia Beach Jail, where they were involved in fights with staff, but have since been shipped to another state.
The 24 inmates originally were held at the Piedmont jail in Farmville. The jail tried to ship them back to Lorton after they caused trouble. But there was no room at Lorton. That's when the Corrections Department took the inmates. Virginia is charging the district $55 a day per inmate, though Botkins stressed the arrangement was made to help Lorton and not to make money.
-ASSOCIATED PRESS
Two armed, masked men rob bank
MANASSAS - Two armed men wearing ski masks robbed a NationsBank branch and escaped after forcing seven people into the bank's vault, police said.
The robbery occurred Monday shortly after 10 a.m., said Officer Kim Chinn, a spokeswoman for Prince William County police.
One of the men guarded customers and bank tellers in the lobby while the other man ordered the branch manager to open the vault, Chinn said.
Before leaving, the gunmen herded the manager, three other bank employees and three customers into the vault and forced them to lie face-down on the floor, she said.
No one was injured. An undisclosed amount of cash was taken.
-ASSOCIATED PRESS
Agent for IRS workers sentenced in tax scam
ALEXANDRIA - A tax consultant whose clients included Internal Revenue Service workers was sentenced to 60 days in prison for filing false federal income tax returns.
Paul E. Suplizio, 66, of Great Falls, also was fined $2,000 at his sentencing last week and was ordered to pay $90,000 in restitution.
Suplizio, who faced a potential three-year prison term and $250,000 fine, pleaded guilty in January to filing false income tax returns for 1990. Suplizio reported $571,514 in gross receipts and another $97,681 in business profits, amounts that were less than what he actually earned, court documents said.
-ASSOCIATED PRESS
Modern Romeo advertises his marriage proposal
MANASSAS - Roderick Procario's billboard was intended to get Faith Smith's attention.
``Faith, I love you, will you marry me? Rod,'' read the $900 message put up along a busy road here.
She noticed.
The billboard ``worked just like I hoped it would,'' Procario, 39, a property maintenance manager, said after he and Smith drove by the sign one day last week. ``She was surprised and thrilled, and then the tears started.''
``We were past it before I even realized what it was,'' said Smith, a real estate manager. ``The word `Faith' caught my eye, and at first I thought it was a religious ad. When I realized what it was, I was very excited.''
She said yes.
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